#166 Truman Campaign

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2022/08/166-blog-post-tuesday-30-august-2022.html

 

#166 Blog Post -- Tuesday, 30 August 2022

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

Direct Selling an Underdog Candidate  —
America's Greatest Data-driven Campaign

  In 1945, Sen. Harry S Truman — product of the Kansas City Democratic machine of notorious Boss Tom Pendergast — had been the Vice President of the United States for 82 days. 

 

Suddenly, on April 12, 1945 — after an unprecedented 12 years in the White House dealing with the Great Depression and World War II — the beloved terminally ill and tired paraplegic President Franklin D. Roosevelt died.

 

Truman came into power knowing nothing about national politics.  For example — astonishingly — this Vice President of the United States assumed office never having heard of the TOP SECRET atom bomb.

 

Truman presided over tumultuous times—Civil Rights, Russian expansionism, Korean War, Berlin Airlift, China going Communist. He was vilified, sneered at and ridiculed by the media, Washington's elite and an obstreperous Republican Congress.

 

In 1948 Truman was nominated for re-election and his candidacy was considered dead on arrival by every big city newspaper, pundits and pollsters alike. New York Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey was considered a shoo-in.

 

As the campaign got under way, Dewey was leading Truman by double digits in the polls. At that point, Elmo Roper ceased all polling, because he knew Dewey’s win was a foregone conclusion.

 

A Presidential Campaign by Railroad
Unlike Any Other in American History 

 

The great whistle-stop campaign tour was completely Truman's idea. From July to October the President traveled 31,000 miles by train across the country. He made 352 speeches. Often starting a 6:00 a.m. in his pajamas and bathrobe — he might speak to 22 people from the rear platform of his special train and go on to make 16 more stops that day, often ending at midnight. He also spoke to a crowd of 80,000 at the National Plowing Match in Dexter, Iowa and 125,000 on Labor Day in Detroit. More than 3 million Americans saw and heard the President live and in person during the tour.

 

Truman’s Secret Organization

• The campaign had a private group of 7 brilliant researchers/writers back in Washington.

 

• These faceless wizards planned the schedule of stops and then sent a 12-point questionnaire to Democratic officials at every one of the scheduled 352 campaign stops.

 

• The replies and resultant individual speeches were assembled and flown out to the nearest airport and delivered to the campaign train every other day.

 

• When the train pulled into a little town or a giant state fair, the President appeared and started by acknowledging the local movers and shakers by name — their politics, individual history, gossip, the town's main businesses, restaurants, problems and news of local economy.  He related to his listeners in an intimate, personal way.

 

• Thereafter he would launch into a blistering attack on the “Do-Nothing Congress” and promise to make the audience's lives — and the country — a better place than ever before.

 

    "All Politics Are Local.” —Tip O'Neill

Right up to Election night the pundits, pollsters and newspapers  had Truman losing the election to Dewey by a huge margin. The reason: the campaign was a series of local stops and local stories. The media did not send their national reporters out to the boonies to cover the president. Gallup's polling operation had gone dark. Nobody in the country had a clue what was happening nationwide. The entire presidential campaign was under the radar.

 

Phillip White's WHISTLE STOP ­— the insider's account of that revolutionary campaign — is delicious reading. It's a rip-snorting page-turner you won’t be able to put down. Guaranteed!

 

Takeaways to Consider

 

• In marketing, the key copy drivers—the 7 emotional hot buttons that make people act — are fear, greed, guilt, anger, exclusivity, salvation and flattery. Truman pulled all of them out his bag of tricks—at once folksy and upbeat, snarling and passionate.

 

 • Unlike today's campaigns, these were not e-mails in teensy-weensy type from a political headquarters showing up on your computer or smartphone that you could delete with a click.

 

• Here was the real-life President of the United States... right here in your very back yard... in the flesh (and sometimes in his PJ's) talking directly to YOU all about YOUR town, YOUR neighbors, YOUR mayor, YOUR economy, YOUR hopes and dreams. This direct intimacy enthralled listeners in 352 towns and cities, whether the population was two thousand, twenty thousand or 2 million.

 

• This was the pre-television and pre-Internet.  Today, when a TV appearance is scheduled, talking heads discuss what's about to happen... the candidate is introduced and speaks. Whereupon he/she leaves the scene and a group of know-it-all smarty-pants pundits take over to belittle the candidate and the enthusiasm.

•  For all intents and purposes Truman's secret presidential campaign caused the entire country to focus on municipal, state, House and Senate candidates.

 

• To everyone's astonishment in the media and politics — especially to Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey — Truman won re-election by 2.1 million votes (Electoral College Votes: 303-189).

 

• An aside: It was Teddy Roosevelt's daughter, the acerbic Alice Roosevelt Longworth (a great friend of my father's) who savaged the slick, smug New York Governor Tom Dewey saying he "looks like the bridegroom on a wedding cake." Dewey never was able to escape the appellation.

 

 

• Most astonished of all were the editors of The Chicago Tribune who bought into the inevitability of a catastrophic loss for Truman and ran the huge front-page premature ejaculation, "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN." It was a hoot.

 

• This was the ultimate direct marketing, data-driven campaign. The President's team had the precise measure of every town, city and state as "Give-'em-hell Harry" talked directly to the voters (buyers) offering features, benefits and guarantees. 

 

• Nothing like this had ever been done before and could not be done today. In 2022 every local yokel media organization can go national with 5G networks, mini-cams and drones and be instantly on the air with the news, gossip, dirt and lies, lies, lies.

A personal digression...

 

 

In 1947, my father, historian Alden Hatch, was signed by Liberty magazine to write series of monthly articles on all the presidential candidates. He interviewed all the Republicans — Harold Stassen, Robert A. Taft, Arthur Vandenberg, and Thomas E. Dewey as well as President Truman.

 

My father's final question to each of them was, "From one poker player to another: When do you draw to an inside straight?” All the Republicans — Dewey, Stassen, Vandenberg and Taft — solemnly shook their heads and said “Never.”

 

In the Oval Office, my father asked the President if he ever drew to an inside straight. Truman broke into huge grin. “Always!” he said gleefully.

 

P.S. The bourbon flowed, poker games were the entertainment. The private dining car had superb cuisine with white linen table cloths and polished silver. In short, it was a workaholics' grand stag party on wheels where a good time was had by all.

P.P.S. Might not this unique campaign model work for folksy Uncle Joe Biden in 2024? 

 

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